


Everhunted

by buzzbuzz34



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: F/F, Reconciliation, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-25
Updated: 2019-09-25
Packaged: 2020-10-28 09:13:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20776115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buzzbuzz34/pseuds/buzzbuzz34
Summary: Melanie and Daisy fight off the influences of the Hunt and the Slaughter every day, but sometimes there just isn't enough fight left in them.  And one day, Daisy loses control and lashes out at Melanie.  While Melanie forgives her and understands the lapse, Daisy has a harder time forgiving herself.





	Everhunted

“Hey, Daisy, you ready?”

It had become a daily routine for the two of them. Daisy needed to continue her rehabilitation, to gain back her muscle strength after the immobilization she suffered while in the Buried, and Melanie felt better to have an outlet for her aggression, even if the Slaughter wasn’t directly influencing her anymore. So, they would meet up in an impromptu and abandoned room in the Archives to work out and spar. Melanie’s self-defense training up to that point was stabbing and Daisy had been eager to teach her other methods, to keep her own mind focused on something other than the itching desire at the back of her skull. 

There were times while they fought each other with weak punches and narrowly missing kicks that an animalistic glint would shine in Daisy’s eye or Melanie would growl and hit harder than she needed to. They both noticed these moments and said nothing. They understood well enough, how their entities threatened to drag them back into servitude if they let their guard down for only the briefest moment. 

They were never truly free from the Slaughter or the Hunt. But, together, it seemed a little easier to fight off their influence. 

However, that didn’t make them completely impervious. 

When Melanie stepped into their workout studio, she found Daisy already going to town on a punching bag they’d sequestered. Melanie was quietly grateful that she’d never been on the receiving end of Daisy’s pure wrath and that she always pulled her punches just enough. 

“Daisy?” She called again. When she again received no response, she stepped closer and placed a hand on Daisy’s shoulder. 

Perhaps not the smartest idea, she knew, but it seemed strange that Daisy ignored her so intently. Daisy never wore headphones while she worked out, afraid that she might miss something in the real world, so it wasn’t as if she couldn’t hear Melanie. 

Melanie didn’t even manage to set her hand entirely on Daisy’s shoulder before Daisy reacted, spinning around, a hand slashing across Melanie’s face. Daisy growled and her eyes shone with a brightness one only saw in a predator going in for the kill. 

Taking a few steps back in surprise and shock, Melanie felt the blood trickle into her eye and down her cheek, and wiped it away. “Daisy, Daisy… it’s okay…” She reached out carefully to her friend, sympathy in her voice. 

As soon as Daisy faced her completely, the snarl on her lips and the light in her eyes faded into fear. The unnatural length and sharpness of her nails seemed to vanish before their eyes. 

“Melanie?” 

“Yes, it’s me. You’re alright. It’s all okay.”

“Did I… do that?” Daisy’s eyes hovered on the deep gashes that cut along Melanie’s face, tracing red across the upper part of her cheek, temple, and eyebrow. 

“It’s okay. You missed my eye, so it’s all good, it’ll heal,” Melanie tried to joke, smiling as best she could without her wound stinging, but the levity did nothing to help the sorrow building up inside of Daisy. 

“I didn’t mean to… I thought… I wasn’t…” Her voice broke and tears formed in her eyes as she rushed to Melanie, brushing the blood away from her cheek and holding her shoulders tightly. “I’m sorry. I…”

“Really, it’s okay. I understand.”

“That doesn’t make it alright. I thought I was past it. But… the Hunt’s still got me. I’m still a threat. To you, to everyone I care about.”

“Daisy, I startled you, it’s not the end of the world.”

Daisy’s lip quivered and she was unable to look Melanie in the eye. She continued to hold tightly to Melanie’s arms, even as she started to shake. 

A moment later, in an instant as sudden as her attack, Daisy stepped away from Melanie and ran from the room. 

“Daisy!” Melanie called and tried to follow her, but she was already gone. 

If Daisy had left the Institute, there was almost no way that Melanie would be able to find her. So, despite the growing feeling of dread and guilt in her stomach, she headed to the bathroom where they kept one of their many first aid kits and started to bandage up the claw marks that sliced across her face. 

*

“What the hell happened to you?”

The moment the door creaked open, Melanie had darted toward it, hoping that it was Daisy. Instead, she practically ran headlong into Basira, who was examining the shoddy bandages that wrapped across the right side of Melanie’s face. 

“It was… uh, an accident. Have you seen Daisy?”

“No, not recently. And that’s not a real answer.”

“I’m not sure it’s my place to say.”

Basira paused and nodded ever so slightly. “Come with me. I’m guessing you patched yourself up without help?”

“That obvious?”

“I mean, I’ve seen worse, but not by much.”

Basira grabbed another first aid kit from her desk and started to pry off the bandages that Melanie had haphazardly slapped over her injuries to tend to them properly. 

“Are these… claw marks?”

“Yeah.”

“Listen, I understand if you don’t want to talk about it, but if there’s something going on that could hurt someone else, you need to tell me.”

Melanie sighed and winced, half from the antiseptic and half from the truth. 

“The Hunt kind of… got Daisy again for a second.”

“What!?”

“I startled her, and she lashed out, and… her fingernails became claws.” She gestured to her own face to explain how she got such a decoration. “There was something in her eyes…”

Basira nodded, her lips pursed together tightly as she focused more thoroughly on Melanie’s wounds, as if that would make their cause go away. 

“I know she didn’t mean it. We both… have our moments when… but she ran off. I don’t know where she went, and I’m worried about her.”

“I want to say she’ll be okay, but…”

“She was-” Melanie barely managed to stop herself saying ‘back to normal.’ Who knew what normal was for any of them? “She didn’t seem to still be… Hunt-y when she left. She saw what happened and immediately snapped out of it. I just want her to know that I don’t blame her. I understand.”

“Probably better than anybody else here,” Basira remarked. “Jon, Helen, they’re already gone. Who knows about Martin… or me… But the two of you? You’re the ones that have made it out and fought back against whatever monstrosities are trying to claim us.”

“They still have some grip on us, even if it isn’t as strong as before. I know that, I _get _that. I just… I want her to know.”

“She’ll come back, don’t worry.”

“Are you sure?” 

Basira quietly placed a series of bandages on Melanie’s face in a much more thorough manner than she had managed alone. “Honestly? No.”

“That’s what I was afraid of.”

*

It was almost three days before Daisy came back to the Archives. She was drenched from the rain outside but still moved quietly and unobtrusively through the office space, eyes on the ground. 

But the sound of the door opening and closing was enough to wake Melanie, who was half-asleep at her desk, a pen still in her hand, and she jolted upright at the noise. 

“Daisy?” 

Barely louder than a whisper, Daisy replied, “Yes.”

“I didn’t know when you were coming back. _If _you were coming back. I was so worried.”

“Really?”

“Of course.”

As they spoke, Melanie stood from her desk and made to stand near Daisy, forcing her to raise her eyes and look at her. 

“Can I hug you?” Melanie asked. “I missed you.”

Daisy nodded slowly and let Melanie thump into her chest, embracing her tightly for a few brief moments. 

But as they drew apart, Daisy’s eyes fell on the fresh bandages adorning Melanie’s face from the gashes she’d put there, and she sighed heavily, the faintest sound of a whimper in her voice. 

“I’m sorry…”

“It’s fine, really. But right now, you should get into some dry clothes and get some sleep. I’m not sure which of us looks worse right now,” Melanie teased gently with a smile. 

Daisy started to protest, but then allowed Melanie to lace an arm through hers to direct her toward their living area in the basement of the Archives. 

“Sleep sounds good. I haven’t slept since I left.”

“Daisy…” Melanie grumbled sympathetically. “I can’t say I’ve slept much either, but… still.”

For the first time in days, Daisy smiled. “Thank you for waiting for me.”

“You’re welcome. We were all worried about you, but I… I’m just glad you came back.”

“We can talk more in the morning?” Daisy asked wearily, now leaning against Melanie with every step as they found their cots and sprawled-out piles of clothing. 

“That’s fine. I’ll be here when you wake up.”

Melanie watched Daisy grab some dry clothing and head off to get changed, her eyebrows creased with concern. And when Daisy returned and met Melanie’s worried stare, she opened her mouth to speak until her gaze migrated from Melanie’s eyes and to the bandage just beside them, and decided she better not. If they were going to talk, it would wait until morning, when they were both more cognoscente. 

Bottling up her self-hatred, Daisy crawled into bed but didn’t let sleep claim her until she saw Melanie get settled into her own cot. Tomorrow was a new day. A new day of fighting off the Hunt, ripping away from its fingers and tendrils that threatened to suffocate her more than the Buried ever could. 

*

Daisy found Melanie in the bathroom, door open, swearing as she attempted to clean her wound and reapply fresh bandages. 

“Do you need help?”

Melanie jumped with shock, as she hadn’t heard anyone approach. 

“I didn’t know you were up!” She cried. “I didn’t… I wouldn’t have let you see me do this otherwise. I know it… upsets you.”

Without confirmation, Daisy took the antiseptic and gauze from Melanie’s hand and carefully began work on the claw marks cutting across her temple. 

“I don’t know why it doesn’t upset you more,” Daisy admitted in a low grumble. “I don’t know how you can even stand to be around me.”

“I know you didn’t mean it. It wasn’t your fault.”

“Doesn’t that just make it worse? That you can’t even know when I’m going to lose it, when I’m going to snap and turn on you, when I’m going to hurt someone I care about…”

Melanie reached out and gently held Daisy’s wrist as her movements ceased and she shut her eyes tight. 

“We’re both fighting them off. The Hunt, the Slaughter, they’re… still with us, no matter how much we try to avoid them. But I think it’s more important that we _do _keep going. One lapse isn’t going to make me hate you, Daisy. I understand. It could easily have been the other way around. Which doesn’t make it any better,” Melanie added hastily. “But we have to keep fighting. And you give me a reason to fight for my humanity every day.”

Melanie leaned in close and stood up tall to press a brief and gentle kiss to Daisy’s lips. She pulled away the tiniest amount and waited for a response. 

“I shouldn’t…”

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have-”

“I don’t deserve this.” Daisy sighed and her face scrunched up in pain. 

“When has the universe ever given anyone what they deserve?” Melanie snapped. “We have to take what we want, every little thing, every little moment. If you don’t want… with me, then I understand, and I’m sorry, or if you’re not ready, then just say that. But you deserve more goodness than the world has offered you.”

For the first time since she returned to the Institute, Daisy finally looked at Melanie and saw her beyond the injury in her forehead. The bags under her eyes, which were red from tears, the way her lip quivered, the indomitable look on her face that neither god nor monster could ever strip away. 

“You’re right. We have to take it ourselves.”

Daisy abandoned the medical supplies and pulled Melanie into her arms, kissing her firmly and passionately, a thousand apologies and reassurances passing between their lips in an instant. 

“I’m sorry,” she whispered against Melanie’s cheek. “But we’ll fight them off. We’ll fight it all off.”

“Together.”

**Author's Note:**

> I keep forgetting to post this but I am concerned™ for them in the coming episodes so I thought it was finally time to release this into the world lol
> 
> I hope you liked it and thank you for reading!! You can find more of my writing at kellanswritingblog.tumblr.com, and feel free to come chat on my personal, celsidebottom.tumblr.com <3


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